In circumstances where off road sporting activities are being conducted, two, three and four wheel ATVs are frequently utilized. For transportation of ATVs to and from remote recreational facilities, small trailers and trucks are often employed. Where small trucks or trailers are employed to transport ATVs the trucks or trailers must also transport ramp devices that may be used in the field to accomplish ATV loading and unloading operations. Obviously, where truck or trailer ramps are employed such may be utilized only in conjunction with trucks or trailers designed for roadway operation. At times it is desirable to provide ATVs with small field trailers in order to permit transportation of equipment into remote areas that are inaccessible to the truck or road trailer. If such is done, the truck or road trailer must also have sufficient transporting capability for a small all terrain trailer. Typically, such is not the case. Most pickup trucks or road trailers are capable of efficiently transporting only a single ATV and do not ordinarily provide sufficient carrying capacity for both an ATV, an off-road or all terrain trailer, and the ramps for loading and unloading the ATV and trailer.
It is desirable, therefore to provide an off-road or all terrain trailer that may be efficiently stored within a truck, road trailer or other vehicle transporting an ATV and which trailer assembly is also capable of serving as a ramp device for loading and unloading the ATV.
The trucks and trailers that are ordinarily provided for transporting ATVs and similar equipment may be provided with ramp devices to facilitate loading and unloading operations. In many cases trailer or truck ramps are in the form of elongate channel members that are sufficiently wide to receive the wide all terrain tires of ATVs. In most cases the flange on each side of the ramps is only two to three inches in height. During loading and unloading operations it is relatively easy for the large deep treaded all terrain tires to climb these side flanges, thus allowing the vehicle to fall. Obviously in such cases there is significant danger to the passenger of the ATV and to other personnel and equipment in the immediate vicinity. It is desirable therefore to provide a ramp device that facilitates safe and efficient loading and unloading operations and provides sufficient guiding capability to insure that the ATV or other apparatus does not fall from the ramp.
Various small trailers are frequently utilized in the domestic environment for gardening activities and for hauling small loads behind a small garden tractor. Although small trailers are efficient for such uses in the domestic environment, when the hauling operation has been completed, the small trailer often becomes a handicap from the standpoint of storage. Small lawn and garden trailer are ordinarily difficult to store and frequently must remain exposed to the elements since storage thereof is often impractical. It is desirable, therefore, to provide a trailer assembly capable of being utilized for small loads in the domestic environment and yet having the capability of being folded to a small dimension for efficient handling and storage.